‘Gyanendra Shah said he is innocent’

Former king Gyanendra Shah has said that he had no involvement in the notorious 2001 Royal Massacre that killed all five family members of king Birendra.

India’s Former Commerce, Law and Justice Minister, Dr. Subramanian Swamy, President of the Janata Party had questioned then king Shah whether he committed the 2001 royal massacre, reveals a US cable released by Wikileaks on August 30, said a news report.

The last monarch in response said he did not.

In his briefing to officials at US Embassy at New Delhi, Swamy shared what he did during his April 26, 2006 visit to Nepal. Swamy said he met one-on-one with then King Gyanendra, his son Crown Prince Paras, Prime Minister G.P. Koirala, the Ambassadors of India, China and Israel, Rashtriya Prajatantra Party President Pashupati Rana, former Prime Minister Tulsi Giri, former Deputy Prime Minister Shailaja Acharya, Pashupati Dayal Mishra, Chairman, Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha and Thakur Singh Tharu, Vice Chairman, Tharu Kalyan Karani Sabha.

“Swamy asserted that he had visited Nepal at King Gyanendra’s invitation, and noted that the King’s now deceased brother Birendra had been a student at Harvard when Swamy taught there in the 1960’s,” ekantipur.com in its report said quoting the cable. “Swamy relayed that he asked the King point-blank if he were guilty of committing the 2001 royal massacre. King Gyanendra responded that he would have been convicted by now if he had been guilty, claimed Swamy.”

Swamy suggested that the Maoists were out to sabotage free and fair elections in Nepal, and warned that trouble could ensue as soon as June, when the Maoists might “bully” the Nepali Congress into declaring Nepal a republic and postponing elections. This, the cable reads, would incite Madhesis and the Nepali Army (NA), both of which he described as sympathetic to the monarchy, into action, he said.

Swamy contended that the Government of India (GOI) needed to take an active role in ensuring that there were enough election observers to hold free and fair elections no later than November, that the monarch stayed in place and Nepal was not declared a republic, and that the “democratic parties” of Nepal worked together and maintained law and order. India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Hindu organization would be approaching the GOI on the issue soon, he stated, and he would suggest that the GOI convene a conference to clarify and strengthen its Nepal policy. Swamy doubted the United Progressive Alliance government would take needed steps due to the support it derives from the Left.